calliope Archives - Vinyl From The Vault

Calliope “Chapel Perilous”

sfilzen — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 19:02:10 +0000

Calliope “Chapel Perilous” 2018. Romanus Records. Limited edition custom vinyl, black sand and gold glitter filled. I nabbed this beauty on Saturday night at Calliope’s record release show where they played Company Brewing in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood along with Space Raft and Shogun, two other local bands. Calliope recorded Chapel Perilous awhile back in the northwoods of Wisconsin, releasing the 7″ of “Sea of Red” – b/w “Brujo” – last year (and its crazy-ass video just a few weeks ago). Like “Sea of Red” and “Brujo” which both appear on the new LP, the rest of Chapel Perilous is super-heavy stoner psych rock with enough metal (i.e. “Sands of July” is touched by Sabbath) for a slo-mo head banging session. (While trying to take a few photos at the show I got whiplashed in the face by some dude’s long blond locks, ew. I’m pretty sure Calliope was performing “Evil as You” when that happened). They credit “a lot” of musical influences and besides metal, there’s a bit of blues (one of my favorite tracks is “Carry Me Home” with its brutal yet melancholy sliding guitar and organ) and even whispers of country – granted it’s country on acid (i.e. “The Dunes”). The title track, “Chapel Perilous” has a totally creepy intro before launching into dense and savage droning organ swirls.

The show on Saturday was an amazing trip, Calliope’s psychedelic rock enhanced by a hallucinogenic light show and stage backdrop; while it didn’t have the big budget production of the Black Angels show we saw the previous weekend, it was still a great visual experience. Below are photos of Al Kraemer (keyboards, vocals) getting in on the head-banging; Victor Buell (guitar) and Anthony Smith (bass) getting lost in the musical haze.

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Calliope “Sea of Red”

sfilzen — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 19:45:00 +0000

Calliope “Sea of Red” b/w “Brujo” 2017. Romanus Records. Custom vinyl in Green Bay Packers green and gold (Pack Splat!). This past Tuesday Milwaukee’s Calliope released the over-the-top, insane video for “Sea of Red,” in anticipation of their forthcoming new album Chapel Perilous due out at the end of March (also on Romanus Records). I don’t know the track listing yet but I’m assuming “Sea of Red” made the cut. It’s heavy, brutally heavy psych-rock and the video is just as vicious: singer/keyboardist Al Kraemer goes on an adventure that starts off jovially enough, with Al and the rest of Calliope doing shots at one of our neighborhood Bay View bars, Frank’s Power Plant (while wearing amazing matching Calliope jackets – I want one!) and that adventure let’s just say doesn’t end well for him. Side B’s “Brujo” is almost as dark as “Sea of Red” with swirling psychedelic rhythms that weave and explode against a wall of wailing vocals and keyboards. These guys are AMAZING live; we’ve caught them a couple of times this past year and I’m beyond excited to see their record-release show at Company Brewing in Riverwest on March 31st (they’ll play with another great Milwaukee band, Space Raft).

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Calliope “Orbis”

sfilzen — Fri, 25 Aug 2017 19:54:41 +0000

Calliope “Orbis” 2014, self-released on red vinyl. Flashback to last Friday when we caught Milwaukee-based Calliope for their performance at Breadfest IV’s “Weekend at Linneman’s” where we picked up this EP and I basically haven’t stopped listening to it since. Described as fuzzed-out psych rock and (rightly) compared to the Doors and the Animals, Calliope rocks hard yet creates the perfect atmospheric music for a 3:00 a.m. drive down the dark, deserted highway after a show when eyes are fogged and mind is hazed (but, as Joe pointed out, really perfect only for the passenger). “Prelude” begins with a riff reminiscent of the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun.” “Guns” is my favorite song on the EP, “Casino” a close second with its ominous carnival funhouse organ intro that explodes into a massively heavy beat, droned-out lyrics and killer hooks. “The King” pays homage to the king (Elvis) with its bluesy rockabilly guitar intro but also to the Lizard King (Morrison) with singer/organist Al Kraemer’s vocal delivery (Kraemer’s vocals compare favorably to Morrison’s but his poetry, in my opinion, is far less pretentious. I love the Doors but Morrison can be…a bit much). “Iron Hand” reminds me of the Black Angels’ entire catalog: all dark, heavy and rich psychedelic layers and swirls. Calliope has recently joined the Romanus Records label – I’ll be posting about their 7″ release on Romanus in the near future – and I’m hoping a full length record will come out soon because my only real criticism of Orbis is that it is too short.

****UPDATE: just got a note from Al Kramer that a new full length is about to go into production on Romanus Records.

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